Karin Higa, JANM Senior Curator of Art from 1992 to 2006 and consultant on later projects, died October 29, 2013, following a battle with cancer. She was a native of Los Angeles who spent most of her career in Southern California, with a bachelor’s degree from Columbia University in New …
This September 2011, PJ and Roy Hirabayshi, who led San Jose Taiko for over 35 years, were formally recognized in Washington D.C. as National Heritage Fellows, an award presented annually by the National Endowment for the Arts and the most prestigious honor for artists working in folk and traditional arts. …
Read part 1 >>REVISITING THE PASTIt took a visit to a cemetery in his father’s hometown in Hawaii—where he learned that his middle name commemorated a childhood friend who had been killed in combat during the war—and the dedication of the National Japanese American Memorial in D.C. in 2000 to …
Little Tokyo one of my favorite places feels like I’ve come home
INTRODUCTIONOn February 27, 2010, the Japanese American National Museum opened its exhibition Textured Lives: Japanese Immigrant Clothing from the Plantations of Hawai’i, which featured the extraordinary research of Barbara Kawakami. As part of the opening celebration, the Museum invited singer Allison Arakawa to perform an example of Hole Hole Bushi, …
On February 9, 1885, the first official Japanese migrants arrived in Hawai’i. Before an audience that included King David Kalakaua, they reportedly celebrated their arrival with a sumo match.
The steady beat of a taiko has long provided the accompaniment for Bon-odori celebrations in Hawai`i. The taiko tradition has been passed along from generation to generation and from one family member to another. Third-generation taiko player Kay (Watanabe) Fukumoto, who learned Obon taiko from her grandfather Tomio and her …
Journal feed
